Combining exploration and protection of the environment, Bertrand Piccard initiated the Solar Impulse programme to promote renewable energies and new technologies with a project to fly a solar powered aircraft around the world. Operating outside the customary certainties, Bertrand Piccard is a visionary communicator, and it is his vision of the future that motivates the financial partners of this adventure. A pioneer of ultralight flying in the 1970s, an airplane and glider pilot, Piccard achieved the first ever non-stop round the world balloon flight in 1999, the longest flight in the history of aviation in terms of duration and distance. Piccard is a psychiatrist, aeronaut and renowned lecturer, chairman of the Winds of Hope humanitarian foundation and goodwill ambassador for the United Nations.